NOTE: This blog looks long. Read it anyway—or skip to bullet points for the hair raising information.
Finances at the city of Bend are getting tight and, to be real frank, the sh*t is starting to hit the fan, particularly for the Bend Police Department.
Police Chief Jeff Sale gave a super bleak presentation to the Bend City Council last night about what will happen if the department does not get more cash.
Basically, the department will have to gut programs, lay off staff and pull back services A LOT, said the chief.
Here’s the plan he laid out last night. Keep in mind it’s just a proposal. The city could allocate more resources to the department and make this plan go away, he said. But if city councilors do that, they probably have to take cash from something else. In other words, see the first paragraph of this little blog.
2012 Proposed Service Reductions
- Elimination of Youth Enhancement Services program, which is like diversion for kids who commit low level crimes like shop lifting, smoking, etc.
- Stop investigating credit card fraud if the victim gets reimbursed
- No more property crime and theft investigations under $100,000, unless the person is over 65
2013 Proposed Service Reductions
- Reduction in responses to calls for barking dogs, noisy parties, etc.
- No more investigation into prostitution unless it involves a minor
- No more burglary investigation unless it appears to be a serial crime
- Stop looking into computer related crime
2014 Proposed Service Reductions
- No more property crime and theft investigation under $250,000, unless person is over 65 or has a disability
- Stop proactive searches for people in possession of child porn
- Stop looking into most runaway cases
2015 Proposed Service Reductions
- Eliminate the School Resource Officer Program
- No more suspicious death investigations
- No more investigation into any property crime and theft
- Stop looking into missing people cases unless foul play is suspected
2016 Proposed Service Reductions
- Eliminate traffic division
- Stop investigating arson
- Stop investigating robbery
- Stop investigating sex abuse/rape unless the person is under 14, over 65, or has a disability
The result of all this is layoffs every single year, said the chief.
The effect of the presentation was generally to scare the hell out of the city councilors. One council said it’s like a public service announcement for criminals. Come to Bend, criminals, we don’t have the resources to catch you…
Sale said to the department needs two or three new full-time staff positions a year, which translates to about $200,000-$300,000 per year.
You can weigh in by contacting city councilors. Find their info by going to this webpage and clicking on the “City Council Roster” link. Next council meeting will be held May 16 at City Hall, 710 NW Wall St.
This article appears in May 3-9, 2012.
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It’s more of the sky is falling BS we here all the time…
Oh give us more money to hire more people or we are going to cut all these resources how does that make sense? I love it when our Government spreads horror stories to milk us for more money. Hey I got an idea; how about stopping those months long CODE investigations that costs tens of thousands of dollars and nets 3 ounces of weed from those scary devils lettuce smokers. Or maybe trade in some of those new fancy Bmw motorcycles or stop buying all those new expensive Dodge Chargers or those new Suburbans. Do we really need a new 50,000 dollar Animal control Truck how about a little Chevy S-10 for 5,000? And what about all those community service Guys Driving around in those big new expensive police trucks; what do they really do anyway? sweep up glass or tail light pieces after a fender bender.. Give me God Dam break maybe the police chief Should tighten the belt like the rest of us have had to do for years now and not spend our money irresponsibly.
I’m with you Chad but just so you know the big items like cars are a totally different budget. The CODE stuff would be in their for salaries and stuff. Big items are usually under capital expenditures grouped with all other big ticket items along with road work etc and bond are issued for those.
Another thing to remember when you look to buy things, and I’m not saying this is the case here, when you go cheap now to save 10k a lot of times it bites you in the ass and ends up costing you an extra 10k in 5 years. So if you had spent 30k instead of 20k you wouldn’t be spending another 20k in 5 years. This is where we as taxpayers need to suck it up some and say I’d rather throw in an extra penny on my taxes this year than have to do a nickle next year. But we never do that, we can’t think that far ahead so we screw ourselves every year along with the politicians who want to get re-elected and won’t do what is fiscally right.
Off my soap box, I didn’t realize Bend was growing that drastically that the police force needed to grow that much every year. I guess the building, planning department will need to hire back people also.
I find it funny when people assume it’s not law enforcements money. They pay taxes too. So, they are also paying for the same services you guys are.
However, I think the chief was exaggerating a bit. I can understand where he is coming from, though. With a growing population, the budget will in fact need to be bigger. Now, I find it hard to believe the department will stop investigating crimes such as rape, but the sad reality is they certainly won’t have the resources to continue long term investigations.
I don’t like paying taxes any more than the next guy, but we also love the city of Bend for a reason. Do we want to be the next Oakland?
So without extra money they can’t do the basic functions they do now? How can they not continue basically the same functions now on the same money? Bend is not growing very fast. In fact, many of the last few years it has lost residences. There is no way the outline given by Chief Sale can be correct. We need a chief who will give us basic facts and truth. Not a scare campaign. This “presentation” is bull. I don’t doubt that budget issues may feel tight at the Police Dept after the huge amounts money available to police for wasteful things for so many years. Now it is time to get back to reality with budgets. How about the dept only focus on the real needs of the community and cut the extra stuff? How about only focusing on real crime? How about dropping all the task forces for just basic crime investigation and prevention? How about the truth?